Gates Demonstrates Tablet PC

Bill Gates demonstrated a working prototype of Microsoft's Tablet PC during his keynote address at Comdex on Sunday. The demonstration used the next version of Windows (codenamed Whistler).

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The company announced its plans to build a handheld, tablet-like device last year -- a device that will finally take Microsoft users away from their desk or notebook and into a more portable, comfortable world.

"Combining the simplicity of paper with the power of the PC will enable people to be far more productive," said Gates, and that is perhaps the key philosophy behind the ambitious plan to move beyond the PC / mouse & keyboard way of computing. The device for web surfing, reading ebooks and ejournals, and inputting through voice and stylus is not expected for release before 2002.

The tablet looks much like several of the dedicated ebook reading devices available today. The main differences being that it is larger (letter-sized) and has a much faster processor and larger memory to run a full version of Window and the accompanying applications. Interestingly Microsoft is not positioning the Tablet PC as a secondary device such as a Palm or Pocket PC, it is being touted as a primary device and therefore a replacement for a notebook or PC.

Handwriting recognition software has come along way over a very short time. Users of the transcriber addon software for Pocket PC are already experiencing a tool that enables one to write normally rather than have to adapt to a new form. The only issue is that the Pocket PC cannot always keep up with the speed most users can write. Having the amount of processing power behind the device as a fully fledged PC will hopefully make the use of one handed computing (with a stylus pen) enter the mainstream.